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Repairing a hole in your nose

I just recently repaired a hole in the nose of my friend's board, and it turned out really well. So well I decided I would do the same on my board and document it w/ pics, so hopefully it will help somebody in the future. Unfortunately it didn't quite go as smoothly as the first time, but the process is documented nonetheless and should still be helpful.

Disclaimer: Everything I know about working w/ fiberglass and epoxy I learned from reading the internet and working with it. I'm far from an expert and if you see anything I'm doing wrong please let me know so I can correct it.

So, here we go. Here's the hole in my board, I'm sure a lot of you have gotten this to varying degrees. Mine was repaired with some cheap 5 min epoxy a few years back and it had broken up and yellowed, so I took a butterknife and scooped it out.

For this job, I used MAS epoxies. I've used them before to make skateboards and I have no complaints. I got these at Boater's World. Notice I got non-blushing hardener, so it would dry clear and not yellowish. The stuff on the right is silica powder, it's really fine and when added to resin it hardens it up. It not only adds structural integrity, it also makes it thicker and easier to work with. Makes it less like honey and more like that little can of glue you used back in Kindergarten with the brush attached to the cap. The more you add, the thicker it gets, so just experiment.

I also picked up a little bit of fiberglass cloth, some rubber gloves, and some little paper dixie cups. When resin cures it gets surprisingly hot, and will melt a hole in a Styrofoam cup, so use paper. Not pictured is the dust mask (or better yet, gas mask) I should have been wearing.

MAS epoxy is 2 parts resin, 1 part hardener, so what I did was picked an arbitrary amount of water and filled the cup, then marked the line, and did so 3 times. I picked 2 tsp, but I could have gone less for this first batch. I could have used 1tsp.

When you add the hardener to the resin, the clock starts and you have limited time before it starts to cure and get goopy and lumpy. If you can get everything done in 5 mins you're golden. 10 mins is pushing it, in my experience, though it depends on the resin/hardener you use. As you can see I'm using "Fast" hardener so I had limited time. Make sure you stir it really well, and that you are exact on your proportions of resin to hardener. One of the first times I used resin I didn't mix it well and I had spots that never really cured right and stayed sticky for months. Then once you've mixed it, add the silica powder. Be careful not to breathe that stuff in.

Then, I simply scooped some out and filled the hole till it was about level.

I then covered it with saran wrap because I had to turn the board over to work on other spots (I may show those later)

I let the board cure overnight. Then next night (I try to wait 24 hours) I sanded it down smooth and this is what it looked like.

Now it was time to do the second and final layer. I mixed up the same amount of resin as before, but this time, before adding the hardener, I poured some of it (maybe about half) out into another dixie cup. The reason for this is, I needed really thick resin to build up a hump on the nose, but I needed thin resin to lay the fiberglass. I cut out a piece of fiberglass to fit over the nose and down the sides a little:

Then I add some more thin resin on top of the glass and smooth it all out. Be careful to get all bubbles out. If you can''t work them out the sides, you can take a pin and poke the cloth to release the air. I was sloppy and left one there on the left side. Oops.

I also kind of pushed and prodded the little clump of thick resin up into the shape I wanted. It didn't turn out quite as symmetrical as I'd hoped, but it was pretty close after sanding.

it would probably be better to talk to somebody who makes boards, but MAS has been highly recommended by everyone I've talked to at Boater's World over any other brands they carry. It went up a little in price since last time I bought it; the resin was 30, the hardener was 20, and the silica powder (not necessary though) was 12. Between this board and the other one I did, however, I only used a fraction of it, and half of what I mixed was wasted. Actually more than half, I didn't know until the last batch how much to mix really. I have a ton left though. Really this whole repair probably cost me less than 5 bucks in materials. And I'm not even showing what I did to the bottom of the board, the nose fix is only 1/3 of the resin I used.

I use epoxy resin on my skims. As far as I know, epoxy resin is epoxy resin. There are different speeds: slow, med and fast drying. I use fast, and it's still not that fast. Like zbr says you have like 10 mins. or so before it dries. It does need to be mixed just right though. For small jobs, I use small paper medicine cups that I buy at the boat yard. You should be able to get them at most drug stores too.

I love how people act like I'm never helpful, when in reality I help out people on here all the time. Aside from posts in threads, I can't even tell you how many times people have PMed me with questions and I've answered them through there.

ah, nice. Yeah I meant to tape it off but forgot. A very useful tip. I believe you can get the pigment wherever the resin's sold, right? I think I saw different color pigments at Boater's World. And milled glass fibers, what are those? You notice I put chopped up glass fibers in the thicker batch, but that was mainly just for the purpose of making it thick and easy to shape. What do the milled fibers do? Add strength?

Edit: I looked it up and MAS makes both. Here's a page that explains their additives. It looks like while the silica powder I have makes a really strong and high density bond, which should hold up well in this application, milled fibers was probably a better choice. My guess is that I'd get the added strength without it being quite as dense. I had used the silica powder before in building skateboards, because I needed a really strong bond, so I thought it was a good choice in this case. Not a bad choice but milled fibers would probably have been better.

Fumed Colloidal Silica (also known as CAB-0-SIL)
For use when an extremely hard solid with high density is needed, i.e. structural bonding, filling and filleting. A small amount of Colloidal Silica ( about a tablespoon per 4 ounces) will add strength to a top coat but still finish absolutely clear. The white color in the mixing cup will disappear when it cures.

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Milled Fibers (1/32" milled fiberglass)
For use when epoxy must fill a void and provide extremely high strength and resistance to cracking (i.e. structural filleting, bonding of hardware, and keel bedding).

ZBR......the glass you chopped up works as good as milled fibers. Also, you can't get milled fibers or silica at your corner hardware store. All you really need is epoxy and some fiberglass. Cut some the fiberglass up real small and it will work as good as milled fibers. It not only makes the resin thicker, it also makes it super strong. I would say the nose of your board is a lot stronger than new.